As alert readers will have noticed, Wings has been perusing the SNP’s Governance And Transparency Review over the last couple of days, a document which tentatively attempts to discern just how big a mess the party’s previous leadership has left it in.
The paper has now also reached the mainstream media.
Wings already touched on that particular aspect of the party’s mismanagement back in August, but in the light of the report now formally acknowledging the problem it’s worth taking a moment to establish just how astonishingly bad it is.
The writing, we mean. Because it’s not until you see it baldly written down in black and white that it really hits you how insane it is.
The SNP has 44 MPs now, and has not managed to enter independence negotiations.
Winning 29 seats would represent a LOSS of 15, or more than a third.
And they’re about to stand up in front of voters and insist that that would somehow compel the UK government to hand over what they’ve been flatly refusing since 2016.
(It’s all pretty academic anyway, obv, as we’ll be amazed if they get double figures.)
The very last shred of credibility has left the building, readers.
Labour won far more handsomely in last night’s by-election than anyone – and we very strongly suspect that includes themselves – expected. If the swing of over 20% was to be repeated nationwide next year (which it won’t be, but we’ll get to that in a minute), the SNP would be reduced to six or seven seats, as Wings has predicted for a while.
From the abject pit of despair of 2015, when Labour lost 40 of its 41 MPs in Scotland, let’s look at how the party has powered back to recapture the hearts of voters.
Humza Yousaf didn’t turn up to the count tonight. In the end, even on a dreadfully low turnout of 37%, Labour won by 9,446 votes, with more than twice as many as the SNP.
It was a much worse defeat for the governing party than most expected. There should be only one outcome.
Alf Baird on The shifting sands of memory: “Robin will aye “struggle more to explain to people what is going on in Scotland” so long as he and…” May 22, 13:23
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: “I must admit I am still in two minds about it. I can see that there was, at least, some…” May 22, 13:18
Lorn on The shifting sands of memory: “Mia: no, I agree that the Claim of Right has not fallen into desuetude. There are and have always been…” May 22, 13:08
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Alf, Indeed Alf, they are projecting anxiety. Back here, in droves trying to protect the treaty of union articles which…” May 22, 12:56
Captain Caveman on The shifting sands of memory: “Lorn said: “… Scotland, by a majority, whether you believe it or not, wants out of the Union” Easily verifiable,…” May 22, 12:53
Lorn on The shifting sands of memory: “I don’t believe that Scotland was annexed. Yes, that has been the effect of the chicanery by Westminster and Whitehall,…” May 22, 12:47
Geri on The shifting sands of memory: ““Our many centuries long history as a constitutional monarchy is just another part of our rich cultural heritage that your…” May 22, 12:44
Lorn on The shifting sands of memory: “Vivian: yes, I also think that Robin has long since abandoned his post structuralist roots – that “rancid pile of…” May 22, 12:39
Northcode on The shifting sands of memory: “Tourist information for visitors to Scotland The lands and the seas and the lochs and mountains and skies of the…” May 22, 12:36
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Mia, That is the part of Scottish constitutional history that union minded people do not understand or wish for their…” May 22, 12:36
Mark Beggan on The shifting sands of memory: “The twenty women on hunger strike have taken virtue signalling to a whole new level. Hunger striker Bobby sands MP…” May 22, 12:35
Lorn on The shifting sands of memory: “You are well-named Hatey. I have never claimed to speak for all Scots. The documents speak for the law, and,…” May 22, 12:29
Alf Baird on The shifting sands of memory: “You folks are clearly starting to panic, and rightly so. Your blessed ‘union’ is proven to be a cultural illusion,…” May 22, 12:23
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: “Which part of the word “kingdom” do you not understand” I understand the full lot of it. Now, which part…” May 22, 12:10
Chas on The shifting sands of memory: “I think you will find that ‘the Union! Whatever that means to each individual, has existed for over 300 years.…” May 22, 11:45
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “RobertKknight. It is strongly debatable wether Scotland was taken over officially into international treaty with England at all. Or simply…” May 22, 11:25
TURABDIN on The shifting sands of memory: “SCOTTISH NATIONALISM is becoming like some abstruse theology concerned with the details of process at the expence of aim and…” May 22, 10:53
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Lying to the Scottish people for hundreds of years that they were in a treaty of union with England and…” May 22, 10:44
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: ““hoodwinked the rest of the world” Aye, James, with true, Scottish Exceptionalism of the highest purity, it’s only a tiny…” May 22, 10:41
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “Which part of the word “kingdom” do you not understand, Mia? Your lot chucked the Kingdom Of Scotland into the…” May 22, 10:36
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Lorn, If it is discovered that the 1707 treaty of union is indeed faux treaty it has ramification on all…” May 22, 10:29
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “Knuckle draggers gonna get friction burns from the nylon carpets in their bedrooms.” May 22, 10:23
Hatey McHateface on The shifting sands of memory: “That’s right, Alf, there’s no union and there never has been. And so we Scots, with true Scottish Exceptionalism, are…” May 22, 10:21
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Bbc might have a hairy fit and explode a zillion times, after all it is funded by the England Great…” May 22, 10:18
James on The shifting sands of memory: “A country that is allegedly an “equal partner” in a “unitary two party state…..but; has no control over it’s own…” May 22, 10:17
James Cheyne on The shifting sands of memory: “Which is also why Westminster invented The Scottish referendum, (which if the treaty of union is not a hoax) and…” May 22, 10:11
TURABDIN on The shifting sands of memory: “Scots Law: Domestic only, zero impact on English law regulated British state apparatus. Presbyterian Church of Scotland: Assured the Protestant…” May 22, 09:56
Mia on The shifting sands of memory: ““The Kingdom of Scotland was extinguished” On this point, I have to disagree. I do not believe the Kingdom of…” May 22, 09:51